Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1887-03-24
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A Social Study that Gentlemen
ShoHid Fender.
In the last Harper's Bosav, 7. W. H.,
possibly Thomas Wentworth Higginson,
has the following interesting editorial on
some phases Of the popular smoking
habit;
"Spenser, in his 'Faerie Queen, bids
the lovely Belphnbe gather divine to-
baecc - but divine tobacco seems, as q
rule, TO bring about An exclusion of the
Beiphobes, az being inconsistent with
their presence. Society is, In certain as
pecta prolonged contest between women
and tobacco. In some regions, as Ger
many and Mexico, tobacco gets the upper
hand, and women must adopt IL or be ex-
cluded, while among ourselves the ten
dency is the other way. ALI our older
learned societies and studious olubs are
masculine only and though this is not
always the result of q demand for to-
bacco, II sometimes is. The elder state
historical societies, the American Anti
quarian Society, the American Oriental
Society are clubs of men. Yet when the
American Pathological Society and the
American Historical Society and the
American Archaeological Society were
founded they were opened almost as q
matter of course to women, this being
evidently half-unconsciou concession to
the progress Of the age. Clubs for the study
Of particular authors, as Shakespeare,
Browning, even Plato, are usually Of
mixed membership. Even where such
clubs are partly of social character, and
have club-rooms, there is a growing ten
| dency to include women with men and
this is found to be perfectly practical
BILE, and all questions of order aud
| propriety settle themselves. Thus the Ap.
1 palRchian Mountain club of Boston has
its charming rooms open to both sexes,
the room committee consisting of an
equal number of each. This combination
| Is undoubtedly attained ut a certain sacri.
fioe--that of tobacco; but ii is generally
held that the result is worthy of what is
| surrendered. So much more healthy and
natural is mixed than separate converse
ton that l am inclined to suspect that
few clubs having conversation as ar ele
ment will be permanent without thii
commipgling. A century hence. fancy
this sort of joint tenancy will be almos
universal. / have belonged to man,
clubs where the sexes were separated
and many where they were commingled
and l have always found that the bes
and most sparkling talk implied th,
presence OF both sexes. Napoleon Bona
parte used TO say that without an admix
ture of feminine wit conversation grew
tame. After all, the French salon, no
the English tavern, is the type witt
which We associate the keeneet inter
change of thought. But this implies, q
least in our day the triumph of womaI
over tobacco.
Whatever tobacco may do by way Q
soothing, there is no reason to suppos
that it does much toward Frightening tn
wits. A certain Monsieur Mission calle
attention in England, in 1898, to wins
he called "a perpetual use of tobacco,
and he suggests that it may be this whic
makes "the generality of Englishmen 6
taciturn, 30 thoughtful, and 30 melaI
choly." In this practice, and possibl
this result, women had their full shart
In Queen Eizabeth's time, an old write
says that the ladies of the court 'swoul
not scruple to blow cloud together yer
socially" Rochefort, French trayels
in England about 1872, reports ratht
apooryphally that it was the general Gu
tom in English homes to set pipes on Il
table in the evening for the women ns we
as for the men of a family, and to put
we'll filled pipe into the ohildren's lunc
baskets. Later, in Queen Anne's day,
was the snuff-box, not the pipe, that WI
universal The Spectator describes it
rivalling the fan in consistency of use; an
Goldsmith portrsys the bellies at Bath
!. going into the water with a tioatir
basket, which held handkerchief,
q nosegay, and snuff box. Perhaps tn
( last may be regarded as the oompromi
h between tobacco and the salon; il was ii
!. form in which the use of the weed migl
q come in doors. Pope's "Sir Plume,
!. amber snuff box Justly vain,n might
q admitted into q lady's parlor, when N.Y.
= beer with his pipe would be properly g
h Guided. "It seems singular way
n opening the lips for conversation" wro
! writer 25 years ago, "to close them on
i pipe-stem, and it would rather appear
4 If fate designed to gag the smokers al
"a let the non-smokers talk"
One of the most curious forms Of ii
:, exclusion Of women in the interest of I
bacco is in the case OF clubs of arts,
a. who find, or claim, that their pictures {
not sell SO well on the opening mig
an'ess the attendance is WHOLLY iuasr
line, in the early day of the New Yo
Water-oolof Society il is said tnat t
)" experiment was tried Of inviting ON
O. ARTISTS Night" all artists whose pictui
were hung; but it was found that eth
10 the patrons must be requested not
w smoke in which case they would st
ne agay--or else, if smoking were Above
the newspapers were straightway fill
n with complaints from ladies. As resu
ze it has been thought best to exclude
M this occasion even those ladies whose p
lures are to be sold, and TO admit the
by way Of compensation, on "Buye
NJ Day." when other artists are exclude
Thus, by what seems in their case
he curious misnomer, they are kept out
ARTISTS Day on account of the buye
and admitted on "Buyers' Day. althou
he they are artists. II ia not for me to 4
he pute the wisdom of this measure as
is business transaction, or to say for tn,
nd ladies how far their increased sales &C
sofa them for the exclusion. But it c.
tie tainly does not say much for the refii
re ment of our manners if the classes W
he are wealthy enough to buy pictures c
v, not submit for this purpose to that
r. clusion of smoking which prevails
every well-regulated picture-gallery.
:, Other cases of the collision betwe
=, women and tobacco have occurred VIII,
of school suffrage, SO called, has been
Ia tended to women, and has been soon
lowed, as in Massachusetts,, by law f
bidding smoking OF voting places. H,
the ladies have carried the day, the N
lot cellaneous public being, il seems, m,
ny courteous than the select few who b
20 pictures in large cities. | have be
ne assured by wardens and precinct clei
So' that the change las been to them u or
blessing, that ii is now far easier to Ike
at, order and to make true return Of yot
ut On orr railway trains the same difTerel
on is secn-the many are far more will
be than the few to subordinate their tOba
IT, to the feminine demand Tie rough
! man readily submits, with a courtesy I
seems amazing shep one isfu sh from e
is land or Germany, TO transfer himself
Mp the smoking car with hi, pipe, But the
We lnnnd OF tn more exclusive bas gradut
ey evolved small SIM k.up ru n ut the [
er- of the palute c sra, Hud tt Is, on SC
Re lines, practically LIT op=n into the m
car; so thnt on these i.4r a. more MOI
ep a lady pays tia more liz, l., she is to
MT annoyed by smoking. On tLe whole,
I'VE contest between woman and tobacco nj
2" be described Ms being still; an uncert
YER affair. with tliN odds, in Europe in fa
err of the tobacco, and in Aneriea in fa
Of the woman 1t Is reslly IS interest
IN, a conwdrum in its way as that of :"
at Lady or the Tiger"